Robert Rauschenberg
Night Shades and Phantoms

Robert Rauschenberg Foundation
March 14 – July 19, 2019

A collaboration between the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and Hunter College, this exhibition was the first to exclusively focus on Rauschenberg’s Night Shades and Phantoms, two distinct but related series of “metal paintings” from 1991. Produced on brushed and mirrored aluminum panels, these silkscreens are composed exclusively of the artist’s own photographs, which were captured on travels at home and abroad from 1979–1991. Rauschenberg’s photographs replaced those he previously appropriated from mass media print sources, shifting the frame of reference in his paintings from the public realm of current events and popular culture to one more defined by the artist’s personal experiences.

The Night Shades are distinguished by Rauschenberg’s application of Aluma-Black, an oxidizing agent that immediately tarnished the aluminum surface, revealing and concealing the artist’s matter-of-fact images. In the spectral Phantoms, the faint screens compete with the transient reflections that enter the frame, which inherently include the viewer. Produced on the heels of three separate retrospective exhibitions, these ethereal works allude to Rauschenberg’s artistic past and, by conjuring the foggy realm of memory, address the difficulties of looking back.

The exhibition was curated by Daniela Mayer, Chris Murtha, Lucy Riley, Joseph Shaikewitz, and Melissa Waldvogel, under the guidance of Emily Braun. The exhibition catalogue includes “Photosensitive Rauschenberg,” my essay on the centrality of photography to the two series and much of the artist’s creative output.
 

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About the Exhibition: Robert Rauschenberg Foundation
Essay: “Photosensitive Rauschenberg” [PDF]
Full Exhibition Catalogue: Night Shades and Phantoms [PDF]